Fitchburg State Upends Franklin Pierce, 7-2

Caveney tallies hat-trick in Falcons non-conference victory

WINCHENDON, Mass. (November 29, 2012) – Senior Joseph Caveney (Fitchburg, Mass./New England Jr. Huskies) notched his first hat-trick of the season to lift the Fitchburg State ice hockey team over Franklin Pierce University, 7-2 in non-conference action this evening.

Fitchburg State jumped out to an early lead just 2:25 into the opening stanza as freshman Nat Rojas (Elkridge, Md./Washington Jr. Nats) found the back of the cage for his second tally of the season off an assist from classmate John Celli (Leominster, Mass./Valley Jr. Warriors) for the 1-0 advantage.

Franklin Pierce knotted the scored (1-1) just one minute later when freshman Paddy Murphy (York, Maine./Portland Jr. Pirates) connected for his first collegiate score. Junior Ted Walsh (Quincy, Mass./Bay State Breakers) assisted on the play. The Falcons regained the lead at the 12:21 mark as Caveney fired a shot past Raven goaltender Pat Dunn (Quincy, Mass./Utica College) for the 2-1 margin before Celli collected his third score of the season to put the visitors up 3-1 heading into the first intermission.

In the second frame, the Green and Gold upped their lead (4-1) midway through the period as freshman Nick Indelicato (Pembroke, Mass./Bridgewater Bandits) struck for his second goal  of the season, using feeds from classmate Ryan Bedard (Derby Line, Vt./Bay State Breakers) and sophomore Craig Halpin (Irvington, N.Y./New York Applecore). The Falcons made it 5-1 with less than four minutes remaining in the stanza as Caveney tallied his second score of the game.

Fitchburg State capped its scoring in the third period when senior forward Justin Quinn (Braintree, Mass./Braintree) added his third marker of the season before Caveney completed the hat-trick with less than 30 seconds remaining in the game, resulting in the 7-2 final.

For the contest, Fitchburg State held a 40-26 margin in shots, while the Ravens recorded five power plays throughout the match. In net, junior Randy Wolcott (East Haven, Conn./Wisconsin-Stevens Point) registered 14 saves for the Falcons in 40 minutes of work, while Dunn finished with 23 stops for Franklin Pierce in the setback.

Fitchburg State (3-3-1, 2-1-0 MASCAC) returns to action on Saturday as it travels to UMass Dartmouth for a contest starting at 4:30 p.m. Franklin Pierce (3-3-0, 1-0-0 NE-10) will visit Stonehill on Saturday at 4:10 p.m.